As league play hits full speed for the 2011 edition of Big Ten men's
soccer, the 2011 Major League Soccer (MLS) season is winding down. In
looking back at the MLS regular season, which will come to a close on October
23rd, some of the Big Ten's brightest stars from last year have been
contributing on the pitch for their respective MLS clubs this year. Here
are a few examples:

Last
year's Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year, Will Bruin (Indiana), netted a hat
trick for the Houston Dynamo in a 4-1 win over D.C. United on April 29th,
a feat that earned him MLS Player of the Week honors. In filling the net
three times, Bruin joined two fellow former Hoosiers, Brian Maisonneuve and Pat
Noonan, on the list of only four MLS rookies to have recorded a hat trick.

· 2010 Big Ten Freshman of the Year, Soony Saad
(Michigan), scored a goal in his MLS debut--9 minutes into his MLS debut, to be
exact--on August 17th to help lead Sporting K.C. to a 3-1 win over
the Portland Timbers. Saad was second in the NCAA in scoring a year ago
with 43 points on 19 goals and five assists.

· Incidentally, Saad
was second in scoring to Corey Hertzog (Penn State), who led the NCAA in 2010
with 46 points on 20 goals and 6 assists. Hertzog has seen action in 5
matches this season for the New York Red Bulls, playing behind world-renowned
superstars Thierry Henry and Juan Agudelo.

· One of the more
exciting connections (to date) between the 2010 Big Ten season and the 2011 MLS
season was a connection between All-Conference performers Justin Meram
(Michigan) and Rich Balchan (Indiana), who are now teammates on the Columbus
Crew. Down 1-0 with only 30 seconds left in the June 4th match
against the New York Red Bulls, Balchan hit a one-timer on a brilliant pass
from Meram to secure a tie and earn a point for the Crew. Balchan has
started each of the 18 matches in which he has played; Meram has seen action in
17 matches, starting 4.

In all, seven All-Conference performers from a year ago (the five mentioned above plus Matt Gold and Konrad Warzycha from Ohio State) are currently on
MLS rosters, bringing the total number of former Big Ten student-athletes in
the MLS up to 25. The complete list is below.

Indiana and Northwestern have earned Big Ten men's soccer weekly
honors, the conference announced on Monday. Northwestern's Chris Ritter
takes home Offensive Player of the Week accolades, while Indiana's Tommy
Meyer earns recognition on the defensive end.